Baku, Tehran decisive for cooperation in communication

/By Azernews/

By Amina Nazarli

Baku and Tehran have explored ways of developing cooperation in the field of communications as the Iranian delegation led by Mahmoud Vaezi, Information and Communications Technology Minister of Iran, visited the country, as part of the preparations for the upcoming visit of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to Azerbaijan on August 8.

Iran and Azerbaijan enjoy successful cooperation almost in all spheres. The February visit of Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev to Iran showed that the two countries, which play a stabilizing role in the region, seek to strengthen their bilateral ties, which have already been strong in light of historically close links.

Within the framework of the official visit of President Aliyev to Tehran the two countries signed 11 Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) covering various areas of cooperation including transportation, electricity swap, health and medical sciences, oil, gas, and petrochemicals, as well as customs, social and women affairs.

The two strategic partners and two neighboring countries hold solid foundation for the ties and the peoples of Azerbaijan and Iran are bound by the history, culture, common past and religion. They have lived together throughout centuries.

President Aliyev received the Iranian delegation on August 2, where the sides discussed political and economic ties and cooperation in the Caspian Sea as well as exchanged views over the prospects for relations in energy, oil and gas, transport, investment making, finance, banking, agricultural, tourism and healthcare fields.

President Aliyev noted that the agenda of the bilateral relations between the two neighborhood states were very broad and covered almost all areas.

He praised the activity of Mahmoud Vaezi and his role in expanding ties between the two countries. The head of state stressed the importance of the presidents` valuable recommendations in terms of strengthening relations between the two countries.

President Aliyev mentioned with pleasure his recent official visit to Iran and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's forthcoming official visit to Azerbaijan, and described this as a good sign of high-level and dynamic development of relations between the two countries.

Mahmoud Vaezi, in turn, hailed the role of President Ilham Aliyev in enhancing the bilateral relations and friendly ties between the two countries.

During the visit the Iranian delegation was also received by Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, where the sides noted successful development of relations between Azerbaijan and Iran based on the principles of good-neighborliness and friendship, mutual respect, expressed satisfaction with the level of bilateral cooperation in the oil and gas, engineering, pharmaceutical, transport, energy, agriculture, tourism and other spheres.

Touching upon the North-South transport corridor, an important route designed to connect Northern Europe to South-East Asia,  the sides emphasized that the corridor will be one of the main topics at the trilateral meeting of the presidents.

This transport corridor is considered to be very important for Azerbaijan both in economic terms and in terms of security and tourism. The project is expected to bring huge economic benefits to the country and significantly increase the volume of cargoes, passing through the territory of Azerbaijan.

The ministers expressed confidence that this project will make an important contribution to the development of interregional cooperation.

Baku and Tehran have also considered joint projects on production of pharmaceutical products, as well as manufacturing of cars and auto spare parts, as part of the meeting between Azerbaijan’s Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev and Iran’s Communication and Information Technology Minister.

The parties considered draft agreements on cooperation between the two countries, and other important projects being jointly implemented by Azerbaijan and Iran, including the North-South international transportation corridor.

The trade turnover between the two states stood at 89.75 million manats ($56 million) as of the first half of 2016, or 65.7 percent more than in the same period in 2015, according to Azerbaijan’s State Customs Committee.

Vaezi also held talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ramin Guluzade. The sides highlighted the need for expansion of mutual cooperation in the field of telecommunications and information technology.

The Iranian side expressed readiness for close cooperation with Azerbaijan in the areas of space and satellite construction, noting that the two countries enjoy a huge potential for cooperation on manufacturing communications equipment and developing software.

Currently, Azerbaijan and Iran are focused on expanding economic ties in various fields, including industry, agriculture, energy, alternative energy, and transportation.